WHEW! Red letter day! I adjusted my goals for the new time schedule and found that I need to make $20 more per week after the loss last week. That's about $16 per day, which I keep in mind even though I'm not worried about hitting any day-by-day goals. I've actually been right on track daily, even pulling slightly ahead after a good run last night. Then tonight I played in another $1 MTT. It's a weekly (or better) thing for me now. Something happened though. I don't know why, but I was making all the right plays. I maintained an average stack for the first three levels. Then I got some cards, doubled up a couple of times...then I maintained for a while until I eventually doubled up again on kings and then again on aces. I became chip leader. Then the 2nd place and I were put at the same table and we took turns getting the lead using our stacks as leverage against the rest of the table. Til I got AKs, he got TT, and someone else got KJ. Flop came JJx w/ 2 spades. By the river I had almost doubled my stack again. For the last half of the tournament, I never fell below 200,000 chips until the final table. Most of it was above 400k, with a peak at 700k when the final table first formed.

I ended in 4th place, for a return of $83 on my $1 buy-in. That put me almost to my goal for NEXT week. One place higher and I'd have been back on my original schedule. So yeah, I'm pumped. Go FTR!